Public broadcast of radio is an important source of information and entertainment for people all over the world. The transmission of radio programs is based on analog technology, typically using amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), and stereophonic FM (also referred to as FM stereo). In an analog FM system, an analog signal may be encoded into a carrier wave by variation of its instantaneous frequency in accordance with the input analog signal.
FM stereo was introduced to create a more natural listening experience. Rather than a single signal including all of the audio information, stereo transmission involves separate left (L) and right (R) signals. The received and processed L and R signals are sent to different speakers, reproducing (at least partially) the spatial location of the source of a sound.
There are two systems for transmission of FM stereo defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU): the stereophonic multiplex signal system and the pilot tone system. In the pilot tone system (according to the ITU standard), suppressed-carrier amplitude modulation is used to modulate stereophonic information onto a higher frequency, and that information can be combined with mono-compatible information in the baseband to form a composite signal that is then frequency modulated to the appropriate program channel. To detect the stereo signal, the carrier that modulates the stereophonic information needs to be recovered.